The Mayor says - "Sign the Petition!"

Mayor Barney McClure, that is. 'Hizzoner' was mayor of Port Townsend when Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park was created, and his is one of the two signatures on the project contract and other relevant documents from 1980 and 1981. He's moved on from politics, but jazz is still front and center. Pictured after a recent evening's performance of B3 jazz are Barney (stage left), his wife Diane (a little obscured by Barney's enthusiastic support for the banner's message) and guitarist Dave Peterson (stage right).

Comprehensive Plan Amendment

A citizen-proposed amendment in the current amendment cycle for the City Comprehensive Plan would add the text shown in bold below to Section IV. Land Use Element of the current Comprehensive Plan:

Parks & Recreation
IV. Land Use Element

Goal 4: To develop park and recreation facilities, programs and opportunities which are responsive to the needs and interests of Port Townsend residents.

Policy 4.5: Design and manage park and recreation facilities to maximize environmental protection and provide interpretive opportunities for ecological systems and features, and cultural resources.

4.5.1. Extend maximum environmental protection in perpetuity for the exclusive open space, wildlife habitat, and passive outdoor recreation functions within Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park.

The Nature Park has been under threat of development for nearly half of its existence due to the imperfect nature of institutional memory which should have recorded the protected boundaries of the Park. When that memory failed at the City, the Port, the Washington State RCO and NPS, the only people left to protect the Park were the volunteers who created and fostered it into existence. That act of will is all that stood between irreplaceable wildlife habitat, natural open space and the 'progress' of mindless development.

The City Council has accepted this amendment to docket, but has put it on hold until they hear from RCO and NPS about the final 6(f)(3) boundary determination. We've been waiting a year so far for that ruling. But Kah Tai has been waiting far longer. It's well past time for the powers that be to stand up for what is right and honor the commitments made three decades ago.

deja view

Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park exists today because of the efforts of many Port Townsend citizens, but there are a few heroes who went far beyond what ordinary people would have committed to the cause. Four lawsuits were brought by citizens to protect the area from a variety of development threats. Not all were successful, but all were paid for by the unflagging dedication of hard-working folks.

Years after the park was a reality, the attorney fees for the lawsuits were still being paid off, one paycheck or one fundraiser at a time. The Ziggy cartoon was found in the archives of records saved by those citizens, tucked in with all the careful documentation of payments for attorney fees from nearly three decades ago.

The current incarnation of Kah Tai protectors hope that it never comes to that again. But we have already paid for an attorney to look at the records and provide guidance during the present effort to finalize the 6(f)(3) boundaries that will protect the park in perpetuity. We are waiting for the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office to 'ascertain the boundaries in continuity with the original grant intent' and recommend that permanent boundary to the National Park Service (NPS). NPS will have the final decision.

park acquisition schedule - parcel Z

In the application process for the LWCF acquisition grant that created Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park, an acquisition schedule was included in the submission attachments with OMB form 80-R0184 under 'Project Approval Information, Part IV, 3c. Attachments'. Note that this is what was proposed at the beginning of the grant process. Some private properties were tied up in probate issues that couldn't be sorted out in a timely way and some private owners decided to donate subsequently so the final number of 'negotiated purchase' and 'donation (private)' properties changed slightly. But parcel Z is 70 acres, not appraised and no cost listed so no purchase was necessary, and it is coded '4. Land transfer (public)'. That 70 acres includes all City, County, PUD and Port lands committed for the park. Click on the image to enlarge the schedule for viewing.  Note that the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, is a federal office so the form was required by the federal LWCF process.

all the words you need to understand

Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park was created with "funding provided by The Land and Water Conservation Fund".

If you follow this link to the LWCF page of Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office you will find the following language at the bottom of the first page:

"All property acquired or developed with Land and Water Conservation Fund grants must be kept forever exclusively for public outdoor recreation use."

Now, how hard was that?

Yes, as a matter of fact, it IS a nature park

A pervasive urban myth about Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park is that it was NEVER intended to be a NATURE park, that the word 'nature' got inserted into the name inappropriately and recently, not by anyone in authority but by a few misguided individuals seeking to prevent development in the Park.

However, in the Environmental Impact Assessment in the 1981 LWCF grant proposal, Kah Tai is referred to explicitly as a 'de-facto wildlife park'. Perhaps those that object to the term 'nature park' would prefer 'wildlife park'? Does that suggest a region more amenable to development?

More importantly, the City of Port Townsend developed a Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Plan in 1986, and the Plan refers repeatedly to the Park by its full name, Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park. The 1986 plan is posted on the City's excellent website as a part of Resolution 86-028.

government in action

The Port of Port Townsend insists that its land in Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park will be released from any obligations to remain as park land in 2012, when a lease expires. The Port's attorney has stated that the lease controls, but only because she carefully avoided the existence and timing of a binding contract between the Port of Port Townsend and the State of Washington signed in 1981. That contract controls, not the 1982 lease. Any agreement between the Port and a third party (the City) signed subsequently does not control a binding contract with the state, and thereby with the Federal Department of the Interior, for the Land and Water Conservation Funds that created Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park in 1981.

Ten citizens traveled to Olympia on March 31, 2011, to make certain that the State Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) Board and staff understood the timing of the contract and the lease. Citizens brought along their own attorney's analysis of the situation. In response to testimony by eight citizens and letters of support by 38 citizens, the Board recognized that it was not their role to 'negotiate' a boundary that already exists and purged its erroneous Briefing Memo with regard to 'negotiating' the future of Kah Tai and will instead 'ascertain' the boundary and forward their recommendation to the National Park Service.

The letters of support were posted online at RCO as public documents in one pdf. The pdf is available at this RCO link. Note that it is a large document because of one 40+page submission of promotional materials supporting the first of many possible losses of park land if the Port is allowed to commercially develop its Kah Tai land. If you would like to receive a smaller pdf with the 5+ MB of promotional materials removed, please email to let us know.